The last of the gas in Dan’s cylinders was used up fabricating what would eventually be called “mini” shutters. These inner shutters consisted of three stacked quarter-inch plate thicknesses welded to a hinge. These covers were designed to cover the cross slots when they were not being used. As a finishing touch, standard sliding bolts were fitted to both the main shutters and the mini shutters, so that they could be locked in either the closed or open position. A similar shutter, minus cross slots, was built for the Grays’ new wood chute.
After three days of almost continuous cutting and welding, Dan Fong was dog-tired and blistered. When asked by Terry Layton what he thought of the end result of their labors, Dan replied in a drawl, “They’ll suffice. But I think that if I ever build a place of my own, I’ll make mine a bit more sturdy than these here lightweight jobs.” He was promptly greeted by a chorus of raspberries.
The “window treatment” was completed much like the doors, with a coat of Rust-Oleum, gluing on a wood veneer, and then stain and Varathane.
Covering up the cross slots took a little ingenuity. It was Mary that came up with the idea of making friction fit wooden inserts to go in each cross slot.
“They’ll just look like decorative trim,” Mary posited. When Mike Nelson stood behind one of the completed shutters with his HK for the first time to test them out, it worked beautifully. All that he had to do was open up the glass portion of the window, swing back the plate covering the cross slot, and pop out the wooden insert with the muzzle of his rifle. “Oh yeah!” he declared.
“Come and get it, you stinking looters. Today’s special is on hot lead!”
After Kevin bought his house in Idaho, he decided to do some upgrading, as well. Although his new house was wood heated and had double pane windows throughout, it did not have true “retreat potential” for any serious confrontation. There were several detractors. First, it was of wood frame construction, with decorative cedar siding, and a shake roof. A few Molotov cocktails, and it’d be history.
The house was served by a two-hundred-feet deep well, which produced twelve gallons per minute. He decided to upgrade the survival potential of the house by installing a Solarjack Type G pump to replace the existing submersible pump that ran off regular line current. In most scenarios, the power grid would be one of the first things to go. Outwardly, the pump looked like a miniature version of an oil field “cricket.” The Solarjack pump ran directly off of photovoltaic solar panels, with no batteries involved in the system at all.
When the sun shined, the ninety-volt D.C. motor ran the pump. When the sun stopped shining, the pump stopped pumping. Kevin bought the Solarjack pump from Sam Watson, the owner of Northern Solar Electric Systems near Sandpoint, Idaho.
On several successive weekends the Grays helped Kevin pour the pad for the pump, install the draw pipe, pump cylinder, and fiberglass “sucker rods,” the pump, and the pole for the solar panel tracker. Even more than the jack pump, the tracker assembly appealed to his engineer’s sense of a good design. The tracker, built by Zomeworks Corporation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, used a metal frame charged with Freon to turn the panel rack to match the angle of the sun. It worked on the simple principle of heat expansion. Because two sides of the frame were mounted with aluminum sunshades, part of it would be exposed to the sun, while the rest was not. As one side of the frame heated up, the Freon expanded as sunlight heated it up. This changed the balance of the frame, and hence the tilt of the tracker, roughly matching the angle of the sun.
According to Watson, the tracker would provide a 25 percent increase in the output of his panels. Although he did not anticipate the need, Kevin went ahead and bought a tracker that could hold up to six solar panels, even though his system would only be using three Kyocera forty-eight-watt solar panel modules. The ability to increase his pumping capacity by simply strapping on more panels appealed to Kevin.
The installation of the solar powered pump also necessitated changing the house’s water storage system. As it was configured when he bought it, the house used a thirty-gallon pressure tank connected to the submersible pump. Kevin decided to go whole hog with the water storage side of the equation. He requested bids from several makers of cisterns in the area, as well as distributors of poly and fiberglass tanks. He soon selected Adam Holton of Lenore, Idaho, some fifty miles away, to build him a concrete storage cistern. Holton put in an incredibly low bid of “$2,050 complete” to build a thirty-five-hundred-gallon cistern. This was about one-half the cost of putting in a pair of fifteen-hundred-gallon fiberglass tanks. It would also last much, much longer.
The cistern was situated on a hillside, four-hundred-and-fifty linear feet and seventy vertical feet, above the house. This provided a large, stable water supply with gravity feed. Because the solar pump ran almost continuously during daylight hours, it would keep the cistern constantly full. Rather than install a float switch to turn off the pump when the cistern was full, Kevin decided to have a pond excavated at the base of the hill below the cistern. The overflow from the cistern ran down a pipe to keep the pond full. Even at peak usage when watering his garden and small orchard, the pond remained constantly full.
While he was installing the solar pump and cistern, Kevin decided to install first-class water lines as well. He contracted with Underwood Pump Supply of Lewiston to provide the pipe and to do the trenching. Because Bovill was at fairly high elevation, Kevin opted to have the water lines buried at a four-foot depth to rule out the risk of frozen pipes. Despite a couple of unexpected breakdowns of the “Ditch Witch” trenching machine that caused delays, Chuck Underwood did an admirable job of digging clean, deep, trenches. With the incredibly deep topsoil of the Palouse, they encountered only a few rocks.
Again with system longevity in mind, Kevin selected Schedule 40 PVC pipe to use throughout. He opted for two-inch pipe for the service line, and three-quarter-inch pipe for the overflow line. Underwood also sold Kevin a dozen Merrill frost-proof spigots. In all, Kevin had to buy over eight hundred feet of pipe and have over seven hundred feet of trenching done. This was because he wanted to position several spigots around the house, several at his garden site, and two at his orchard site. To install the spigots and glue together the pipe, Kevin did not need the assistance of a contractor. He did most of it himself, with a bit of assistance from Todd in the more difficult steep section of the system just below the cistern.
The other upgrade that Kevin made to his house the first summer he was there also involved water. He installed a row of sprinklers on the peak of his roof, as well as an array of sprinklers around the house. When turned on full blast, the ground sprinklers thoroughly soaked most of the walls of the house, while the roof sprinklers did a good job of soaking the cedar shakes. Although not fully proof against his envisioned bands of arson-prone looters, Kevin felt a little better about the fire safety of his house. “Besides,” he suggested, “if things get really bad, I can go down the road to stay at the home of the little piggy that built his house of brick.”
Todd and Mary were so impressed with Kevin’s water system that they upgraded their own water system along the same lines. First, they had Underwood dig up their existing water lines. Once they saw the pipe that came up, they were glad that they decided to go ahead with the job. The pipe appeared to be about the same vintage as the house. It was rusty, had several small leaks, and at half-inch diameter, it was woefully undersized. They replaced the pipe with two-inch diameter Schedule 40 PVC. At the same time, they extended their water lines to accommodate a larger garden and their plans for a bigger orchard. Again following Kevin’s lead, they also replaced all of the old water spigots with Merrill “frost frees.”
Because Todd and Mary’s system was served by a spring, rather than a well, there was no need to install a fancy solar pump. Mary was particularly impressed with the photovoltaic array, however, and convinced Todd to take the plunge and install a photovoltaic twelve-volt DC power system for the retreat house.
With the
help of Sam Watson, the Grays installed an eight-panel Zomeworks tracker, and a full complement of Kyocera forty-eight-watt panels. The tracker was mounted eight feet away from the south side of the house, between two sets of windows. Because of the tremendous line loss of DC power, on the advice of Watson, the Grays decided to wire only the living room with twelve-volt DC. This circuit charged a bank of nickel cadmium batteries, which Todd installed in the bottom of an old armoire. The batteries in turn powered the Grays’ numerous twelve-volt DC radios and gadgets, as well as an inverter. The inverter built by Xantrex of Arlington,Washington, converted twelve volts DC to hundred and seventeen volts AC. Because it used a modern sine wave inversion design, the Xantrex was very efficient.
Later, Todd added a Winco twelve-volt wind generator to the system. Mary saw it advertised in the for-sale ads in the Idahonian, a Moscow newspaper. Including the fifteen-foot tower, the used five-hundred-watt generator cost only two hundred and fifty dollars. It even came with two extra sets of bearings and brushes for the generator.
Because the retreat was not in a particularly good location for wind exposure, the fifteen-foot tower was insufficient. Rather than buy a larger steel tower, the expense of which would have dwarfed the cost of buying the wind generator, Todd decided to build his own tower.
After studying several options for building their own guy-wired tower out of steel, it was Kevin who came up with the idea of building a wooden tower.
He said, “What you can do is build a three-legged wooden pole tower, and put a platform on top of it. Then, you can just bolt your fifteen-foot tower on top.”
As it turned out, it was a good, inexpensive, albeit time-consuming idea. Again through the newspaper, Mary found a source for used telephone poles. They bought three forty-footers. They cost a total of forty dollars, delivered. They used Todd’s McCullough Pro-Mac 610 chain saw to cut the poles off to equal lengths. It took some sweat and ingenuity, but Todd and Kevin were able to dig the holes for the posts, and raise them using a “gin pole” arrangement. Next, using a set of tree climbing spikes, Todd climbed the poles and built a platform out of two-by-tens. With foresight, they had already drilled holes through the poles for the bolts to attach the cross-members. All of the lumber for the platform was raised using a pulley arrangement.
After the wooden tower was in place, it took even more sweat and ingenuity to disassemble, raise, and reassemble the fifteen-foot “stub” tower for the Wincharger. Next, even more precariously, came the generator and, finally, its propeller. Even though Todd used heavy number-six cable to run the power from the generator to the twelve-volt system junction box, there was still considerable line loss in the fifty-seven feet of cable.
In retrospect, Todd was disappointed by the contribution of the Wincharger to the system. Even with a twenty-five-m.p.h. wind, the generator did not put out as much current as the eight PV panels on a sunny day. At least Todd had the satisfaction of knowing that in the winter, when their PV panels were putting out their least amount of power, the Wincharger would be cranking away, however inefficiently. Later, Todd admitted that the Wincharger was not worth the investment in dollars, time, and sweat that went into its installation. It was, however, as Todd put it, “good practical experience, and a chance to apply some brain power to something other than crunching numbers.”
The next upgrade for the retreat was the construction of “spider holes” for ambush positions by the side of the county road. There were a total of seven one-man foxholes, dug at roughly twelve-foot intervals. Todd then lined the foxholes with pressure treated plywood. To provide drainage, Todd dug the holes an extra fifteen inches deep and laid down a base of gravel beneath the floorboards. A dozen half-inch diameter holes were drilled in each set of floorboards.
Gray also took the time to dig a pair of “grenade sumps” for each spider hole. This design trick, which was taught to the group by Jeff Trasel, consisted of an eight-inch diameter hole, four feet long dug downward at a forty-five-degree angle, starting at each of the two front corners of each spider hole. As Jeff explained, the idea behind the sumps was that if anyone were to toss a grenade into a spider hole, whoever was occupying it could kick it into either of the sumps where it would explode harmlessly. This, of course, assumed that they could get the grenade into the sump before it exploded. Although it was considered a last ditch defense against grenades, it was better than nothing.
Todd and Mary found some interesting ways to camouflage the lids to the spider holes. Most were covered by old pieces of scrap plywood or odd-shaped pieces of corrugated sheet metal roofing material. One used a Volkswagen car door. The one that Todd was particularly proud of used an abandoned refrigerator laying on its back for a door. Because the sides of the refrigerator were above ground level, Todd reinforced them from inside with six sheet thicknesses of the quarter-inch plate steel left over from the door and window shutter project.
As the spider holes were positioned at twelve-foot intervals, Todd thought that their positioning might attract suspicion, so he scattered additional pieces of junk around the area. When completed, the set of spider holes was undetectable. It just made the area between their fence line and the county road resemble a junk pile.
The last major physical security upgrade for the retreat was a chain-link fence around the house. Its gate got one of the last of the set of keyed-alike locks. As it turned out, the lowest price available on chain-link fences came from Sears. When the installation crew inquired why they wanted the fence, Mary just pointed to Shona and answered, “I don’t want our Ridgeback wandering off and getting shot by some farmer. I hear that it happens quite a bit around here.”
The fence was to serve two purposes. First, it would slow down anyone trying to gain entrance to the house. Second, it would pre-detonate the warheads of rocket propelled grenades (RPGs). Todd didn’t mention this second aspect to Mary. The thought of anyone using a LAW rocket or a Soviet RPG against their house seemed far-fetched. He didn’t want Mary laughing at him. She had already told him that she thought that the spider holes were “a bit much.”
Late in the summer Todd set about getting his supply of wood ready for winter. Although he didn’t have to, he decided to split all five cords of wood before stacking it. “We won’t have to stack it twice this way,” he declared. Todd had never split large quantities of wood before, so he ended up regretting the fact that he had committed himself to splitting the wood all at once. As it turned out, it took him two weeks to do the job, because he also had six hours of accounting work to do every day.
As his experience at wood splitting grew, Todd became a better judge of where to strike with the splitting maul, and with the larger rounds of wood, where to place his wedges. Consequently, Todd got quite a bit faster at the job.
Mary, who was doing all the stacking while Todd did the splitting, noticed the quickening of his pace. She complained, “Slow down, Arnie, I’m starting to have trouble keeping up with you.”
“Who’s Arnie?” Todd asked.
“You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger. I figured with all those bulging muscles that you’ve been building, you’ll look like Arnie in no time at all.”
Todd grinned and joked in his best pseudo-German, “Yah, das ist true, mein Leibchurn. I vill be zee Arrnee of your treams.”
After a long pause and a shared smile, Mary wiped her brow, and said, “I’ve got to take a break and get some water. I’ll finish up stacking the rest of this wood later in the afternoon when it starts to cool off.” She then turned and walked back to the house, her hips swinging enough to make Todd whistle.
Todd was seldom so intensely happy. Married life suited him well.
CHAPTER 9
Shank’s Mare
“The sun went down an hour ago,
I wonder if I face toward home.
If I lost my way in the light of day
How shall I find it now night is come?”
—Old Song
In late May, following two months of boredom,
Rose Trasel spotted a stranger approaching the perimeter of the retreat. It was just after dawn. At first she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. She thought she saw movement, but then could see nothing. Rose picked up the binoculars and scanned the area where she thought she had seen the movement. Still she saw nothing.
Finally, she saw more movement. It was a single figure, well camouflaged, carrying a long gun, moving a few paces at a time, and pausing. From the LP/OP, she called in an agitated message on the TA-1:“Hasty-rear. A probable solo. Armed. Approaching slowly from the east, cross-country. Estimate four hundred and fifty meters.”
Because it was during daylight hours and most of the group members were up and about, there was time to set a hasty ambush before the stranger came into view of the house.
In low prone positions within the concealment of the wooded area north of the house, Todd, Mary, Kevin, and Dan waited for the stranger to approach. The man walked toward the waiting ambush cautiously.
The man stopped occasionally to scan his surroundings. When he saw smoke coming from the chimney of the Grays’ house, he cautiously moved inside the tree line of the wood lot. He was carrying a Springfield Armory M1A with a padded black nylon M60 sling. The rifle was slung across his chest, ready to fire quickly. He was wearing BDUs and carried a forest green Kelty backpack. As he got closer it became apparent that the stranger was also wearing camouflage face paint.
Since he had veered to enter the tree line to avoid observation from the house, the stranger passed only ten feet in front of Kevin Lendel, who lay prone, his face covered by a camouflage sniper’s veil. Just after he had passed Kevin without noticing him, approaching Mary’s position, Todd yelled, “Halt!”
Normally, Todd would have waited until a stranger was in the middle of the kill zone of the ambush, but because he had unexpectedly entered the tree line, the ambushers were in great danger of being spotted.
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